Bomb explodes after Noumea riots

Press, 9 November 1981, Page 8

Bomb explodes after Noumea riots

NZPA-Reuter Noumea A bomb damaged the base of a French monument in Noumea on Saturday night after what was believed to be the worst rioting seen in the capital of France’s South Pacific territory on New Caledonia.

The police said yesterday that 88 people were' arrested and 20, including six policemen, were injured in the nearly three hours of rioting by hundreds of Melanesian youths. Officials said 40 shops had their windows smashed and more than 20 vehicles were severly damaged by rocks thrown by the rioters. Onlookers said there was also some looting. The violence was only quelled after the police repeatedly fired tear-gas to disperse the rioters. Noumea was quiet yesterday but the police said that shortly before midnight an explosion damaged the concrete base of a column on a hill overlooking the city which supports a Cross of Lorraine — symbol of New Caledonia’s support for French resistance to the Nazis in World War 11. There was no immediate indication that the rioting was politically motivated, and none of the territory's independence movements claimed involvement. But tension between Melanesians, the territory's original inhabitants and whites and other races increased two months ago

after the assassination of the leader of the biggest proindependence movement. A white has been arrested in connection with the murder, which caused unrest among the Melanesians. The Melanesians, numbering 60,000 are outnumbered by a combination of 50,000 whites and nearby 30,000 Polynesians and other races,, and recent votes in the territory have strongly favoured continued links with Paris. The French socialist Government of President Francois Mitterrand had indicated that independence could only come through a democratic vote—almost impossible under present conditions. But late last week* it promised “profound and audacious reforms” to correct the social and economic disadvantages traditionally suffered by the Melanesians. Trouble in Noumea originally began on Friday night when two gr.oups of several hundred Melanesians from different regions of the main island began fighting. But they joined forces to attack police who intervened.

The police managed quickly to control the trouble but rioting broke, out again on Saturday after an annual fair in Noumea during which the centre is closed to traffic and shopkeepers set up openair stalls. Again trouble started with fights between Melanesian youths. There is usually some violence during the fair but it has never before been on the scale seen on Saturday.